With his political future already in jeopardy, this newly-obtained document could change everything for Donald Trump. Picture: AP/Evan Vucci

Politics

This letter could spell Donald Trump’s end

20th Dec 2018 7:26 PM

A newly obtained letter has revealed President Donald Trump signed a letter of intent to build a Trump Tower in Russia.

The 2015 letter, obtained by CNN, marked the beginning of planned talks between the Trump Organisation and IC Expert Investment, the Russian company which would have been responsible for the developments.

Mr Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, admitted the letter was real but claimed "no one signed it".

Mr Trump said he doesn't "even remember it", suggesting his former lawyer Michael Cohen was the one who signed it.

But the document, which has since been made public, shows the President's signature alongside that of IC Expert Investment owner Andrey Rozov.

CNN’s Chris Cuomo has revealed Donald Trump signed a letter of intent to build a Trump Tower in Russia.

Mr Giuliani later backtracked, admitting he was incorrect about no one having signed the letter.

"I was wrong if I said it," he told CNN. "I haven't seen the quote, but I probably meant to say there was never a deal much less a signed one."

This is important because during the 2016 presidential campaign trail - and since then - Mr Trump has repeatedly insisted he had no business interests in Russia, and had "nothing to do" with the country.

The letter was dated October 28, 2015 - five months after Mr Trump launched his Republican candidate campaign, and around a time he was heaping praise on Russian president Vladimir Putin.

In a series of tweets in 2016, he dismissed it as a plot by the Democrats to make him look bad:

At a news conference in the days before his inauguration, Mr Trump explicitly stated: "I have no dealings with Russia, I have no deals in Russia, I have no deals that could happen in Russia because we stayed away," Trump said. "We could make deals in Russia very easily if we wanted to. I just don't want to because I think that would be a conflict. So I have no loans, no dealings and no current pending deals."

The signed letter tells a different story. The project would have given the Trump Organisation a $US4 million fee, no upfront costs, a percentage of the sales and control over the marketing and design for a huge commercial space in the middle of Moscow.

Under the deal, Mr Trump's name would have been his main contribution to the project; Rozov would have been tasked to "design, develop, construct, equip and furnish" the property.

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election have alleged the deal could have been lucrative for the Trump Organisation.